Joanna Kempner on the Gender Politics of Migraine

Because they suffer from an invisible affliction, people with migraines are sometimes suspected of "making up" their disease in order to avoid performing unwanted duties. Even within psychology, women were once suspected of self-inducing their own migraines as a result of their inability to cope with the chaos of daily life. These days, neurobiological research has helped to establish migraine as a legitimate disease, with causes rooted within the organic structure of certain brains. However, as Rutgers professor Joanna Kempner [1]explains, even this paradigm shift tends to imply that the feminine "migraine brain" differs from the masculine "normal brain" in problematic ways. In Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health [2], she explores how cultural assumptions about gender and pain continue to inform how migraines are diagnosed, treated, and stigmatized.

Download Office Hours #115 [3]

[1] http://joannakempner.com/

[2] http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo18785835.html

[3] http://files.thesocietypages.org/downloads/OH115_Kempner.mp3